You can make a three dimensional bow tie block quite easily, as long as you carefully cut and sew.

To make an nine inch three dimensional bow tie, you will need two 5 inch squares of your background fabric
and three 5 inch squares of a homespun plaid for each block. Other sizes below.

Now let's start..... Carefully fold in half, right sides out, one of your bow tie squares. Do NOT crease this, just fold it gently in half.

Place this folded tie square between a background and tie square, right sides together, with the fold in the center. Sew along the raw edges.

Open up, and pull out the folded tie piece, remember, don't crease it.

Now sew that together with the remaining background and tie squares. If the background is on the top of the first set, then it belongs on the bottom set this time.

Open the knot piece and put both pieces right sides together, matching the center seam. (arrow shows center seams) Put seam allowances on opposing sides, one in each direction, so you won't have a huge lump on one side.

Next sew both halves together.

Open and press.

You should have a 9 1/2 inch three dimensional bow tie. It will be nine inches when sewn into a quilt. Other sizes below.

Here's a new twist to the 3D Bowties. Because your knot is on an angle those edges become bias, which means they stretch easily, or fold easily. So let's just fold them back and put a new look to these bowties.

I used the exact same process to make this block as shown above. As a part of the quilting I folded the edges
of the knots and sewed around each one. First I carefully pinned, then sewed and when I was done the “knot” and block had a whole new look!

Want a different size?To figure what size to cut your squares, you first need to know what size you want your finished blocks (size when in the quilt). Let's just say you want a 8 1/2 inch finished block,
the size after it is sewn in the quilt. The block is basically a four patch block, so you would divide the finished size you need in half, and add 1/2 inch. So to make a 8 1/2 inch finished block, you would cut your squares 4 3/4 inches.
(8 1/2 divided in half equals 4 1/4, plus 1/2 equals 4 3/4)

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